eStar, ShiauC obliterate Invictus Gaming, take the lead in the LPL

LPL’s youngest, most inexperienced team in eStar took a commanding win against 2018 world champions Invictus Gaming in a brutal display of power. EStar left their esteemed opponents little room to breathe, led by an MVP performance by support Liu “ShiauC” Chia-Hao, and made a strong case for being the best team in the LPL right now.

The pummeling started right from game 1. By minute 15, eStar were leading 2K gold and 6-1 in kills, with Zhang “Wink” Rui’s Varus with 100% kill participation. Every team fight at every objective went eStar’s way, as the rookies consistently found picks even on iG’s best players. The trend continued throughout the entire game and by minute 33 when the game ended, iG had scored only two kills to eStar’s 18.

Game 2 was somehow even more one-sided. EStar kept the pressure on from minute one and once again found picks all over the map. Song “Rookie” Eui-jin was uncharacteristically sloppy in the mid lane, constantly falling prey to eStar’s dynamic rotation. Up top, Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok also made blatant misplays, allowing Yang “Xiaobai” Zhong-He’s Renekton to snowball.

At the 15th minute, the game was almost over. EStar were ahead 7K gold, 16-3 in kills. Xiaobai’s Renekton and Yuan “Cryin” Cheng-Wei’s Pantheon each had six kills, and ShiauC was landing hook after hook on his Blitzcrank. In the next 15 minutes, eStar found 12 more kills to iG’s one, making this one of the most one-sided series in the entire LPL season so far.

EStar now take the lead in the LPL at 7-1 and will look towards some less challenging opponents than iG this week: LNG Esports on Friday, and Dominus Esports on Sunday. With two more MVP awards from this series, ShiauC also climbs to tied-second place in the MVP rankings, tying Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok and lagging behind Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang by one.